5 ms·

The lack of a "this is a serious machine" setting in Windows is baffling. I have Windows 10 Enterprise installed in a 20 core/128 GB RAM workstation that is use

The lack of a "this is a serious machine" setting in Windows is baffling. I have Windows 10 Enterprise installed in a 20 core/128 GB RAM workstation that is used for lengthy numerical simulations. And yet it happily reboots randomly and it keeps filling the start menu with silly game icons (candy crush, etc.). Super fun for your boss to point out and say "so this is why you use this machine, for candy crush?"

dhd415 8y ago
Completely agree. I've taken to running Windows Server on my workstations for that reason though the price is much higher.
- tajen 8y ago
  I’ve given a Mac to my interns. 2 months in, they say they’d never come back to Windows. Fun thing is, building a lean OS doesn’t require as much time as building an OS with IA embedded in the Start Menu trying to push you to play Candy Crush, and not as much work either as building all possible combinations of Unity-Xcfe-Cinnamon-Gnome-Wayland-initd-systemd distributions. MacOS could be an easily reproducible OS, yet never properly copied.
Someone1234 8y ago
Isn't that exactly what LTSB is designed for?
- megaman22 8y ago
  LTSB is fantastic, except there is no linux subsystem. If you can live without that, or use Cygwin instead, it's far and away the best Windows distribution.
- NeedMoreTea 8y ago
  Don't you need to be on volume licensing to get that? Which rules it out for most.
  - Someone1234 8y ago
    The OP said they had Windows 10 Enterprise and was at a University, so it definitely applies to the situation.
- JorgeGT 8y ago
  Not sure that my Uni can support these, plus they have no Linux subsystem (which is quite useful) and last time I heard, they are ditching Office 365 ProPlus support for that branch (which is the Office we use on campus, and I require in my workflow).
  - Someone1234 8y ago
    I thought it was a "serious machine" used only for "lengthy numerical simulations." Seems more like your person desktop computer, that you happen to run some numerical simulations on. Plus if you're at Uni you likely DO have access to Windows 10 Education Edition which is a version of Enterprise without several of the things you complained about.
    - JorgeGT 8y ago
      The word "only" appears nowhere in my comment. It is a workstation, in which additional tasks are expected to be completed while simulations are running (some LES cases take several weeks), including CFD pre- and post-processing, CAD work, typesetting publications, preparing lectures and tests, etc. I fail to see how, in your opinion, this makes the use of the machine not serious, or makes random reboots and installing silly games pertinent or understandable. Windows 10 Education Edition does not seem to be available in the software repository of my Uni. Which obnoxious features do you say are absent in this version, compared to Enterprise?
      - Someone1234 8y ago
        > Which obnoxious features do you say are absent in this version, compared to Enterprise? The bundled games and other apps aren't provided in the Education edition.
- fsloth 8y ago
  I wasn't aware there was a windows default install that is this sensible! Thanks for pointing it out.
mohn 8y ago
Whoa, I primarily run Win 10 Pro on my home machine and was assuming that if I'd splashed out for an Enterprise license, I wouldn't be having this problem of extremely pushy/sneaky updates. It's good to know I'm probably saving hundreds of dollars (if a home user can even buy a single enterprise license without too much hassle) for basically the same pain.
- maljx 8y ago
  You can disable these “features” on enterprise but you need to dig around in the settings and google how to do it.
  - mohn 8y ago
    That's good. It's an ordeal to disable them on Pro, and the once-good guide I found[1] is usually out of date (or some of its settings get overridden) with every major update. [1] https://superuser.com/questions/973009/conclusively-stop-wake-timers-from-waking-windows-10-desktop/973029 https://superuser.com/questions/973009/conclusively-stop-wak...
    - isostatic 8y ago
      > That's good No, it's really not.
      - mohn 8y ago
        I could have been more clear. That was directed at the first clause: > You can disable these “features” on enterprise Or are you saying that it's not good that they can be disabled (perhaps because people get lazy, run out-of-date vulnerable software, and end up infected with ransomware or part of a botnet?)
        btschaegg 8y ago
        My guess would be that their point is: It's not good that those things are in Windows at all, and it's even worse that you have to dig around to disable them. I'd certainly agree there.
luckman212 8y ago
Not an answer per se, but so far the best solution I've found for the random reboots is the RebootBlocker service[0] written by Ulrich Decker [0] - https://www.udse.de/en/windows-10-reboot-blocker https://www.udse.de/en/windows-10-reboot-blocker
- iknowverylittle 8y ago
  I'm sorry, I don't mean to laugh, but when the Forbes article author was complaining about a random unplanned forced update I thought surely the guy just didn't bother to change the default settings. Now I've come to your comment and am now realizing that apparently there is no built in functionality to prevent forced update/reboots (while connected to the internet) in Windows 10. I not crazy anti-Microsoft, but that's absurd and honestly aside from gaming (which I don't have a gaming PC anyways) I miss nothing from Windows. I see comments about Linux on random laptops, I've only have had good experiences with it generally. I'm not a power user. I've run at least one distro or another on a random cheap netbook, a 2005-08 Sony laptop, a low end and higher end Lenovo laptops, and honestly other than the one I'm on right now I've not had the problems people talk about it (something related to the CPU was crashing the system, found a solution online and everything is good now). Maybe I'm just lucky.
  - marsokod 8y ago
    The worst part is that there is a setting for it (at least on the pro version). However, even with it selected I see an automatic reboot every three or four months. And that is by applying updates when I happen to work on it. And there is nothing to disable the shortcuts or installation of silly program like candy crush. I remember reading something about a Windows 10 edition without all this crap, but it was only for very big accounts and with a specific contract with Microsoft.
    - iknowverylittle 8y ago
      That's awful. I don't want come across as trying to convert or be rude, but what does Windows provide, both home users and businesses, that open source operating systems are unable to do? As someone just kind of starting out, is Windows promising for future career building? I understand backwards compatibly and larger selection of games, and that hardware manufacturers will provide software.
some_account 8y ago
Because Windows is not a serious system. It's a point and click, wizard next-next-next system. It's pretty bad at most tasks except gaming.
- IloveHN84 8y ago
  What about the non serious OSX UI with that bouncing effects and click-click-click and hidden in the topbar menu controls?
  - some_account 8y ago
    I would never use Mac for running important jobs. It's a good developer machine but has no chance as a server system.
- childintime 8y ago
  > Because Windows is not a serious system. The guy from the article is still in the honeymoon phase. Wait until he tries to move all his files from one disk to another, zipping them to a pendrive in batches, and restoring them on his shiny new system. And doing this in a multi-tasking way as this is time-consuming. Simple task? When he is done, when trying to open a file, he will find the destination folder is full of corrupted files. Stunned? This was true 15 years ago, and as recent as 2 months ago (on a range of distros, last one Ubuntu). How serious a system is that? I'd say it disqualifies the system for all uses. Regardless, as a desktop foundation Linux is a dream that had a place in time. Permissions, usernames, Posix filetimes and C itself are all non-starters in this era. They bog down trivial tasks, but also development and distribution, to the point of provoking a survivors-bias so bad that those survivors will die blind, swearing the OS is sliced bread and that all of humanity missed out. Bash is their unsung hero. Don't listen. It's poison our community is full of. The Linux folks just want more help to put out all the fires, and, if need be, fool you into believing their gospel. Reality is: heaven will never come to pass. Linux hurts more than it gives back. It's a brain drain. It's time to die. Please die.
  - RealityVoid 8y ago
pcunite 8y ago
If you want to prevent Windows 10 reboots, use the following (with the included gpedit.msc tool) * Computer Configuration / Administrative Templates / Windows Components / Windows Update Do not include drivers with Windows Update = Enabled Configure Automatic Updates = Enabled = 2 * Computer Configuration / Administrative Templates / Windows Components / Windows Update / Defer Upgrades and Updates Select when Feature Updates are received = Current Branch for Business = 365 days
- sverige 8y ago
  It really kills me every time I see a Windows hint like this. Ten or fifteen or maybe even twenty years ago, one of Windows' arguments against Linux was that configuring simple things (like, say, preventing automatic updates from interrupting your fucking workflow) involved some series of arcane commands that I'll never be able to walk my wife or my mom through over the phone. Now it's literally the opposite. My wife's laptop runs OpenSUSE (or maybe Manjaro, I can't remember what I put on there after she got upset with Mint for whatever reason; whatever it was, the updates work and she can get whatever software she wants to work without my intervention, because I haven't heard about it for almost a year.) My mom's still cursing Windows 10 almost daily, and still bemoans the loss of Windows 7 (lol). But she's literally terrified to let me install anything else, even after I've shown her how easy it is to use. Microsoft has completely removed her ability to choose something else. She trusts them more than me. It's scary.
red75prime 8y ago
> it keeps filling the start menu with silly game icons (candy crush, etc.) Do you mean literally? You've removed candy crush from the start menu and windows put it there again? Or it was something on microsoft store live tile? Right click, more, Turn Live Tile off.
- __sr__ 8y ago
  Yup, I have to remove a bunch of apps/games I never asked for after every major upgrade.
gear54rus 8y ago
It will happen as long as weak willed tolerate this. Educate your neighbor for better experience for all. It's doubly amazing that this happens while Win7 is still more than usable.
AnIdiotOnTheNet 8y ago
For anyone still unaware, O&O ShutUp10[0] is very helpful for dealing with this crap. [0] https://www.oo-software.com/en/shutup10 https://www.oo-software.com/en/shutup10
kyriakos 8y ago
We use windows in an enterprise setup in the company I work for. No candy crush or forced reboots. Enterprises control all these via group policy, that's what enterprise edition is for.
- sofaofthedamned 8y ago
  But Microsoft move the goalposts. In a previous role at a very security conscious company I designed and built a malware analysis platform built on Linux with KVM VMs. Some of these needed to be Windows because of certain software we ran, and we needed to be sure they were fully patched and free of any malware from a previous run. So snapshots were no good, we needed to built new VMs from the Windows equivalent of a kickstart ( autoattend.xml). This worked fine for a couple of months. Until Microsoft decided that their 'Professional' SKU shouldn't do this. So suddenly our auto builds stopped working as they were waiting for product keys that we already supplied.We could have gone to Enterprise, with the associated volume licensing agreement, but it was ridiculous and let a sour taste in our mouths. All this time the Linux VMs happily rebuilt in less than 2 minutes. I've literally talked today to a company who want me to move their large Windows deployment to Linux for the same reason. Nobody wants to be held hostage to a supplier.

dhd415 8y ago

Completely agree. I've taken to running Windows Server on my workstations for that reason though the price is much higher.

tajen 8y ago
I’ve given a Mac to my interns. 2 months in, they say they’d never come back to Windows. Fun thing is, building a lean OS doesn’t require as much time as building an OS with IA embedded in the Start Menu trying to push you to play Candy Crush, and not as much work either as building all possible combinations of Unity-Xcfe-Cinnamon-Gnome-Wayland-initd-systemd distributions. MacOS could be an easily reproducible OS, yet never properly copied.

Someone1234 8y ago

Isn't that exactly what LTSB is designed for?

megaman22 8y ago
LTSB is fantastic, except there is no linux subsystem. If you can live without that, or use Cygwin instead, it's far and away the best Windows distribution.
NeedMoreTea 8y ago
Don't you need to be on volume licensing to get that? Which rules it out for most.
- Someone1234 8y ago
  The OP said they had Windows 10 Enterprise and was at a University, so it definitely applies to the situation.
JorgeGT 8y ago
Not sure that my Uni can support these, plus they have no Linux subsystem (which is quite useful) and last time I heard, they are ditching Office 365 ProPlus support for that branch (which is the Office we use on campus, and I require in my workflow).
- Someone1234 8y ago
  I thought it was a "serious machine" used only for "lengthy numerical simulations." Seems more like your person desktop computer, that you happen to run some numerical simulations on. Plus if you're at Uni you likely DO have access to Windows 10 Education Edition which is a version of Enterprise without several of the things you complained about.
  - JorgeGT 8y ago
    The word "only" appears nowhere in my comment. It is a workstation, in which additional tasks are expected to be completed while simulations are running (some LES cases take several weeks), including CFD pre- and post-processing, CAD work, typesetting publications, preparing lectures and tests, etc. I fail to see how, in your opinion, this makes the use of the machine not serious, or makes random reboots and installing silly games pertinent or understandable. Windows 10 Education Edition does not seem to be available in the software repository of my Uni. Which obnoxious features do you say are absent in this version, compared to Enterprise?
    - Someone1234 8y ago
      > Which obnoxious features do you say are absent in this version, compared to Enterprise? The bundled games and other apps aren't provided in the Education edition.
fsloth 8y ago
I wasn't aware there was a windows default install that is this sensible! Thanks for pointing it out.

mohn 8y ago

Whoa, I primarily run Win 10 Pro on my home machine and was assuming that if I'd splashed out for an Enterprise license, I wouldn't be having this problem of extremely pushy/sneaky updates. It's good to know I'm probably saving hundreds of dollars (if a home user can even buy a single enterprise license without too much hassle) for basically the same pain.

maljx 8y ago
You can disable these “features” on enterprise but you need to dig around in the settings and google how to do it.
- mohn 8y ago
  That's good. It's an ordeal to disable them on Pro, and the once-good guide I found[1] is usually out of date (or some of its settings get overridden) with every major update. [1] https://superuser.com/questions/973009/conclusively-stop-wake-timers-from-waking-windows-10-desktop/973029 https://superuser.com/questions/973009/conclusively-stop-wak...
  - isostatic 8y ago
    > That's good No, it's really not.
    - mohn 8y ago
      I could have been more clear. That was directed at the first clause: > You can disable these “features” on enterprise Or are you saying that it's not good that they can be disabled (perhaps because people get lazy, run out-of-date vulnerable software, and end up infected with ransomware or part of a botnet?)
      - btschaegg 8y ago
        My guess would be that their point is: It's not good that those things are in Windows at all, and it's even worse that you have to dig around to disable them. I'd certainly agree there.

luckman212 8y ago

Not an answer per se, but so far the best solution I've found for the random reboots is the RebootBlocker service[0] written by Ulrich Decker [0] - https://www.udse.de/en/windows-10-reboot-blocker https://www.udse.de/en/windows-10-reboot-blocker

iknowverylittle 8y ago
I'm sorry, I don't mean to laugh, but when the Forbes article author was complaining about a random unplanned forced update I thought surely the guy just didn't bother to change the default settings. Now I've come to your comment and am now realizing that apparently there is no built in functionality to prevent forced update/reboots (while connected to the internet) in Windows 10. I not crazy anti-Microsoft, but that's absurd and honestly aside from gaming (which I don't have a gaming PC anyways) I miss nothing from Windows. I see comments about Linux on random laptops, I've only have had good experiences with it generally. I'm not a power user. I've run at least one distro or another on a random cheap netbook, a 2005-08 Sony laptop, a low end and higher end Lenovo laptops, and honestly other than the one I'm on right now I've not had the problems people talk about it (something related to the CPU was crashing the system, found a solution online and everything is good now). Maybe I'm just lucky.
- marsokod 8y ago
  The worst part is that there is a setting for it (at least on the pro version). However, even with it selected I see an automatic reboot every three or four months. And that is by applying updates when I happen to work on it. And there is nothing to disable the shortcuts or installation of silly program like candy crush. I remember reading something about a Windows 10 edition without all this crap, but it was only for very big accounts and with a specific contract with Microsoft.
  - iknowverylittle 8y ago
    That's awful. I don't want come across as trying to convert or be rude, but what does Windows provide, both home users and businesses, that open source operating systems are unable to do? As someone just kind of starting out, is Windows promising for future career building? I understand backwards compatibly and larger selection of games, and that hardware manufacturers will provide software.

some_account 8y ago

Because Windows is not a serious system. It's a point and click, wizard next-next-next system. It's pretty bad at most tasks except gaming.

IloveHN84 8y ago
What about the non serious OSX UI with that bouncing effects and click-click-click and hidden in the topbar menu controls?
- some_account 8y ago
  I would never use Mac for running important jobs. It's a good developer machine but has no chance as a server system.
childintime 8y ago
> Because Windows is not a serious system. The guy from the article is still in the honeymoon phase. Wait until he tries to move all his files from one disk to another, zipping them to a pendrive in batches, and restoring them on his shiny new system. And doing this in a multi-tasking way as this is time-consuming. Simple task? When he is done, when trying to open a file, he will find the destination folder is full of corrupted files. Stunned? This was true 15 years ago, and as recent as 2 months ago (on a range of distros, last one Ubuntu). How serious a system is that? I'd say it disqualifies the system for all uses. Regardless, as a desktop foundation Linux is a dream that had a place in time. Permissions, usernames, Posix filetimes and C itself are all non-starters in this era. They bog down trivial tasks, but also development and distribution, to the point of provoking a survivors-bias so bad that those survivors will die blind, swearing the OS is sliced bread and that all of humanity missed out. Bash is their unsung hero. Don't listen. It's poison our community is full of. The Linux folks just want more help to put out all the fires, and, if need be, fool you into believing their gospel. Reality is: heaven will never come to pass. Linux hurts more than it gives back. It's a brain drain. It's time to die. Please die.
- RealityVoid 8y ago

pcunite 8y ago

If you want to prevent Windows 10 reboots, use the following (with the included gpedit.msc tool) * Computer Configuration / Administrative Templates / Windows Components / Windows Update Do not include drivers with Windows Update = Enabled Configure Automatic Updates = Enabled = 2 * Computer Configuration / Administrative Templates / Windows Components / Windows Update / Defer Upgrades and Updates Select when Feature Updates are received = Current Branch for Business = 365 days

sverige 8y ago
It really kills me every time I see a Windows hint like this. Ten or fifteen or maybe even twenty years ago, one of Windows' arguments against Linux was that configuring simple things (like, say, preventing automatic updates from interrupting your fucking workflow) involved some series of arcane commands that I'll never be able to walk my wife or my mom through over the phone. Now it's literally the opposite. My wife's laptop runs OpenSUSE (or maybe Manjaro, I can't remember what I put on there after she got upset with Mint for whatever reason; whatever it was, the updates work and she can get whatever software she wants to work without my intervention, because I haven't heard about it for almost a year.) My mom's still cursing Windows 10 almost daily, and still bemoans the loss of Windows 7 (lol). But she's literally terrified to let me install anything else, even after I've shown her how easy it is to use. Microsoft has completely removed her ability to choose something else. She trusts them more than me. It's scary.

red75prime 8y ago

> it keeps filling the start menu with silly game icons (candy crush, etc.) Do you mean literally? You've removed candy crush from the start menu and windows put it there again? Or it was something on microsoft store live tile? Right click, more, Turn Live Tile off.

__sr__ 8y ago
Yup, I have to remove a bunch of apps/games I never asked for after every major upgrade.

gear54rus 8y ago

It will happen as long as weak willed tolerate this. Educate your neighbor for better experience for all. It's doubly amazing that this happens while Win7 is still more than usable.

AnIdiotOnTheNet 8y ago

For anyone still unaware, O&O ShutUp10[0] is very helpful for dealing with this crap. [0] https://www.oo-software.com/en/shutup10 https://www.oo-software.com/en/shutup10

kyriakos 8y ago

We use windows in an enterprise setup in the company I work for. No candy crush or forced reboots. Enterprises control all these via group policy, that's what enterprise edition is for.

sofaofthedamned 8y ago
But Microsoft move the goalposts. In a previous role at a very security conscious company I designed and built a malware analysis platform built on Linux with KVM VMs. Some of these needed to be Windows because of certain software we ran, and we needed to be sure they were fully patched and free of any malware from a previous run. So snapshots were no good, we needed to built new VMs from the Windows equivalent of a kickstart ( autoattend.xml). This worked fine for a couple of months. Until Microsoft decided that their 'Professional' SKU shouldn't do this. So suddenly our auto builds stopped working as they were waiting for product keys that we already supplied.We could have gone to Enterprise, with the associated volume licensing agreement, but it was ridiculous and let a sour taste in our mouths. All this time the Linux VMs happily rebuilt in less than 2 minutes. I've literally talked today to a company who want me to move their large Windows deployment to Linux for the same reason. Nobody wants to be held hostage to a supplier.